During the past half century, a signifcant effort has been made by industry to accommodate many different disabilities, from which so many of the human race suffer. Particularly with respect to those disabilities which prevent a disabled person from using his or her hands, the disability is particularly confining, in terms of those activities in which a person must engage a number of times each and every day of his or her life. One such activity is the opening of unlocked doors, which requires only the turning of a door knob handle.
Disability sensitive industry has attacked this problem in a number of different ways; for instance, the door knob especially has been adjusted in shape to attempt to accommodate disabled persons who might not be able to grip and turn a standard door knob. This has proven to be particularly unhelpful with respect to the general problem.
Another manner of approach to the general problem is illustrated by the patent granted to Robert L. Jones, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,731 granted on Aug. 3, 1993. In that patent, Jones discloses and claims a door knob attachment which requires set screws to attach the appliance to existing door knobs. In fairness, what was envisioned by Jones was the a persons other than the disabled one would make the attachment, and thereby present an attachment with a lever for a standard door knob, which can be conveniently used by the disabled person. What is lacking in the Jones appliance, is a sense of how many different door knobs, in the abode of the disabled person must be converted to make the item useful by the disabled person. Another feature lacking in the Jones structure is assistance for the disabled person when he or she is not in or her own abode.
Both of the problems indicated as lacking in the Jones invention are still present, although in a different structure, as presented by Allison in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,479 issued on Apr. 30, 1990. The Allison structure also lacks portability, and further requires at least one set screw manipulation for attaching the structure, with a lever, to a door knob. Also, Allison shows a rather complex structure.
It is noted that Jones further suffers from the disadvantage that it is useful only in connection with a very narrow range of door knob sizes, whereas Allison is more adaptable to different sizes.